Digital

Introduced to Roadside locations in 2007, digital media has now established itself as the “premier” offering in this Outdoor due to its high quality presentation and flexibility in content delivery. It is reserved for only the absolute best locations, primarily in London supported by screens in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow.

Rental values are the highest for digital media and landowners should be alert to requests by media contractors for conversion of existing non-digital panels or alternatively proposals for the development of new digital sites.

Lightboxes

Until the introduction of digital panels, lightboxes were the most valuable form of display. They still form the backbone of most high value campaigns and area available in all standard large-format sizes.

Some lightboxes are also mechanised and form Scrolling panels showing up to five individual images in sequence.

Mechanical

In the 1980’s the first wave of revolutionary content delivery saw the development of Ultravision, Trivision and similar panels with three rotating faces designed to maximise sales revenue. Media buyers supported the product and there was a rapid expansion in the number of panels that became available which, in turn, undermined the individual unit value. High servicing and maintenance costs and the superiority of lightboxes has meant that these units have a very limited lifespan if not replaced already with lightboxes or digital panels.

Those which are not capable of conversion will either revert to a ‘paper & paste panel or be culled.

Banners and Building Wraps

Since their introduction to the UK in 1994, these have become a common site in many city centres and on the national urban motorway network. Where scaffolding is required to undertake development or refurbishment the large format banners offer a welcome visual relief to the otherwise bland security sheeting that is required to encase all major scaffolds.

Their dominance within the street scene and their central locations, where traditional poster panels may be considered inappropriate by the planners, mean that the values that can be generated can be substantial.

Paper & Paste

This is the original form of poster advertising which has probably been a part of the street scene since Roman times. “Paper and paste” still forms the majority of panels across the UK.